Pages

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Bliss

“C’mon,
let’s play!”

Bliss
grinned as Margo’s daughter grabbed Emily’s hand and ran toward the play
structure centered on a wide circle of shredded rubber mulch.Emily was three, a year younger than her
cousin, and the two girls could have passed for twins.

“Bliss,
this playground is for big kids.The girls need to go over to the smaller
one.”

Bliss
sighed and shifted nine-month old Jenna in her baby sling.“Margo, they’ll be fine.We’re standing right here, and Emily’s played
on this playground plenty of times.”

Her younger
sister’s grip on little Taylor’s hand didn’t lessen, and Bliss knew she hadn’t
convinced her to just let the kids play.She and her sister were so different, especially when it came to how
they handled their children.

Margo
worried about nearly everything.Bliss
was starting to wonder if her nieces were going to need therapy, at the rate
her sister was going.Every time they
arranged a play date, it took Emily’s cousin an hour to relax enough to
actually play.Taylor was worse—she
wouldn’t let go of her mother’s hand at all, not even for a cookie.

Of course,
Margo didn’t allow them to have cookies.Sugar was evil, apparently.Which
was why Bliss smuggled them to the girls at every opportunity.

“Look, the
sign clearly says it’s for children…”

The censure
in Margo’s voice stiffened Bliss’s spine.She turned toward her sister, but before she could say anything—exactly
what she was going to say, she wasn’t sure—a wail sounded from the play
structure.

Meeting her
sister’s eyes, Bliss saw smug satisfaction.

Sometimes, she thought, being family is just not enough reason to
let my kids play with their cousins.

This post is my response to a prompt from Write On Edge. My friend, Amybeth, and I decided to try the synchronized option: we wrote the same story, but from different viewpoints. Please read Margo's point of view on Amybeth's blog HERE. Please take a moment to comment on both, and thank you for reading!